President Trump’s selection of a revered military strategist and intellectual, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, as national security adviser represents a huge upgrade from Gen. Michael Flynn, who resigned earlier this month after being caught deceiving Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with a Russian diplomat.

Flynn was known for turf wars and sharp elbows while he was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. McMaster is known for his penetrating intelligence and his willingness to buck conventional wisdom and to take on sacred cows. In 1997, his University of North Carolina history Ph.D. thesis became a well-regarded nonfiction book, “Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam.” Then-Maj. McMaster challenged the military’s self-serving conventional wisdom that civilian decisions led to the debacle that was the Vietnam War, using source materials to show the joint chiefs never asserted themselves in their dealings with President Lyndon Johnson and his aides and passively accepted disastrous strategies.

Reuters

President Donald Trump shakes hands with his new national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster after making the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with his new national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster after making the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. (Reuters)

In 2003, McMaster again took on conventional wisdom, arguing that the belief that U.S. technology and overwhelming firepower made winning wars easier — the view of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — was simplistic and ignored history. He was vindicated when the second Iraq war turned into a quagmire after initial U.S. triumphs. McMaster then became a key architect of the U.S. shift to a more successful approach against Iraqi insurgents, one that went beyond military might to use outreach and signs of respect to win support from the Iraqi public.

McMaster may be a novice in the ways of Washington. But his strong relationship with Defense Secretary James Mattis, a retired general and former colleague, bodes well for a coherent national security strategy from an administration not exactly known for coherence. Well done, President Trump. This is a smart choice for you and the U.S.